Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 63: Bruce [2]

Chapter Sixty-Three

Bruce Part II

Milky Way Galaxy

Sol System

Nine Realms / Planet Earth

Bruce had mixed feelings about staying in Malibu. On the bright side, the amount of new technology Tony gathered on his way back was astonishing. Bruce was not an engineer, he was very far away from being an engineer, but it didn't make them any less fascinating. Honestly, he was sold the moment Tony said that his ship had artificial gravity and a hyperdrive. A few days were never going to be enough to just even look at everything in detail, let alone studying them thoroughly.

Tony's crew was well, interesting. He didn't really see much of all of them. It was mainly Drongo and Bee that he spent time with. Well, he spent time with Drongo, the girl was just there, silent and attentive. He knew others must've found her presence disconcerting, but Bruce was not bothered. He knew what it was like to be looked at and treated differently. If you didn't feel like a freak or a monster on your own, the behaviour of others could very well make you feel like one.

Drongo was intelligent. It was not the sort of academic knowledge that you got in schools, he learnt by experience, by encountering many different things and asking questions. He had been travelling for decades and picked up many things on his journeys. He was also... serene. Bruce couldn't find a better word for it. His very presence radiated calm. He was a fighter though. It was obvious from his well-trained body and his many scars. Mens sana in corpore sano. He was the best example of that, Bruce had never seen a better example.

Juyu he only talked to very briefly. She was nothing like her sister. She was blunt, energetic and strong-minded. She was also the youngest member of the crew and it showed. Not that she was naïve or anything, it was just the way she referred to Tony and how Tony treated her in return. Tony was - dare he say - almost parental.

That was not the only thing he noticed about Tony. The most obvious was of course his appearance. Younger, more muscular and his skin a lot paler than it used to be. He knew that two of those were because of the years spent in space. Tony mentioned that the artificial gravity on his ship was higher than the gravity of Earth, it was like a constant work-out, plus he had to do quite a lot of fighting on his own without his suit. And of course it was hard to get tan when you barely spent a few days at a time in sunlight, Bruce was sure that he would get back to his more usual skin tone after a few more weeks in Malibu. Looking younger though, there was no natural explanation for that, but Tony answered without hesitation when he was asked. The answer was Loki.

That was of course the not so stellar side of staying in Malibu. First it was just Loki he was concerned about. Not worrying about his own safety, obviously, he was just being unnerved in general. It was Loki, it was understandable. Then he started to wonder why exactly Hatchet was not allowed to be in the same room with Bruce unless someone else was there with them. Tony said it was because he was an irritating little shit. Which, fine, but it was not like Bruce couldn't handle a little annoyance, Tony knew that very well. Drongo said that Hatchet was difficult, that it was in his nature to be "vexatious". He also said that he did not have ill intentions, that he was just the type to poke at things until they reacted. Then Juyu casually mentioned that he was Loki's best friend and that put things into a new perspective.

Bruce could see the similarity in their sharp smiles and calculating gazes. He could see the way they shared glances, raised their eyebrows meaningfully or smirked about one thing or another. Sometimes Bruce heard them talking in a strange foreign language. It did not take a genius to realize that the reason for it was that they didn't want Bruce to overhear what they were discussing. Hatchet referred to Loki, followed his lead. That much was obvious. Bruce was not wary per se, maybe sort of bizarrely curious about them. The two of them looked like a matched set, tall, slender, one light, one dark, both dangerous.